Tow Truck Driver Shot Over Weekend Dies

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) -Family and friends are mourning the death of John Deane who was shot outside Lucky’s Mini Market on East Rosedale in South Fort Worth around 11:00 p.m. Saturday.

John Deane was towing a car from the parking lot of Lucky’s Mini-Market in South Fort Worth when a woman and man tried to stop him. Deane and the man both pulled out guns. Deane was shot in the back of his shoulder, and returned fire, striking the woman. Both people were expected to survive.

“He came home from the hospital, laid down to sleep and didn’t get back up,” said Deane’s friend Ole Whitworth. And while the medical examiner hasn’t confirmed how Deane died, Whitworth thinks it’s obvious.

“If it wasn’t for the gun shot, he wouldn’t have died… straight up,” Whitworth said.

Deane and Whitworth co-owned Texas Parking Enforcement, and have a contract with the owner of Lucky’s Mini-Market to patrol the lot for overflow parking from a restaurant across the street.

“This ain’t the first gun that’s come out over there,” Whitworth said. “It’s not the first time we’ve been shot at over there.”

The website CrimeMapping.com lists a dozen crime reports in the past 6 months within a 500-foot radius of the parking lot, including drugs, assaults and burglaries.

“They busted my back window out with a brick and hit me in the back of the head,” said Whitworth. “You know, it’s a bad place.”

Police arrested the man they believe shot Deane on unrelated warrants, but he has not been charged with the shooting. Investigators say, while the medical examiner determines Deane’s cause of death, they will proceed with the case as a homicide.

Whitworth plans to continue working the Lucky’s lot. He already ordered bullet proof vests for his drivers.

“This is a rough property, and I thought we weren’t going to tow it at night,” said Whitworth. “But I guess he was needing cars… so he went over there anyway.”